


Death He Draws Near

by FirebirdsDaughter



Series: Bouken Dreams and Nightmares - Works of GoGo Sentai Boukenger [1]
Category: GoGo Sentai Boukenger
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Drama, F/M, Gen, Original Character(s), Toture in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2018-12-03 09:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11529837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FirebirdsDaughter/pseuds/FirebirdsDaughter
Summary: When a mysterious man begs the Boukengers for help retrieving a dangerous Precious, they are quick to accept.Too late, they discover they have become involved with forces beyond their comprehension, caught in the vortex of a war that has lasted since the beginning of time.The Boukengers embark on an adventure, but this is one not all of them will be returning from...





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

> I like to torture my favourites, and this story has been sitting in my head ever since I first watched Boukenger.  
> Let the angst begin!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beginning at the end, with the washing of blood.

     Akashi Satoru was still scrubbing his hands.  
  
     He couldn’t stop, continually rubbing them together despite the friction, as he sat on the sofa of SGS headquarters. Mr. Voice might have been speaking, but he wasn’t listening. He could still feel blood slicking his fingers, hardening under his fingernails.  
  
     He stared vacuously at the jacket laid across the table, acellular sitting atop it. There were holes ripped and burned through the fabric, dried blood caking most of the white parts, and probably the black ones as well. The acellular was damaged, badly cracked, incapable of Starting Up, but the signal was still in working order.  
  
      Not that that had mattered, in the end.  
  
     He’d made a promise, once. How long ago had it been now? That he would never let them die—even one of them.  
  
     Fine job he’d done of that.  
  
     There’s a hand on his shoulder. He assumes it’s Sakura’s but he doesn’t have the will to lift his head and check. Even through his daze, he can tell that Natsuki’s voice is conspicuously absent—either she’s holed up in her room still, crying, or clinging to one of the others in heartbroken silence. She must feel like she just lost the only family she ever had.  
  
     Eiji is quiet, too, not throwing vegetables at anyone. Makes sense; he’s got no one to argue with now, no brother-in-arms to join him in teasing Akashi while Natsuki giggles, Sakura tries to corral them, and Souta rolls his eyes. Souta’s silence isn’t unusual, but there’s a different feel to it. He probably thought he was past the days of losing comrades when he gave up being a spy, only for it to return with such horrible vengeance.  
  
     Sakura’s hand tightens on his shoulder.  
  
     Makino-sensei is in the room, but he’s got nothing to say, either. He already didn’t like sending them on dangerous missions in the first place—this had to be a nightmare come true.  
  
     Conspicuously missing is the man who started all of this, who showed up at their door asking for help. He’d been AWOL since their arrival at the facility. Maybe he’d gotten what he’d wanted and abandoned them; but Satoru didn’t even have the will to be angry at him.  
  
     For the first time in his life, BoukenRed actually regretted jumping at the chance for adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously, the rest of this will be about how we got here. ^^


	2. Request

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first red flag should really have been how easily he got in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long last, chapter one!  
> This is a little awkward, but I'm actually okay with how it turned out.  
> Anyway, hope you enjoy! <3

     They returned to HeadQuarters to find a man sitting at the table across from Makino-sensei, watching a glass of water like he expected it to turn into wine. He was tall and lean, with a tumult of deep black hair that spilled into his face and down his back in curly waves, unkempt and wild. He was wearing an equally dark, fine suit, with shiny black leather dress shoes. The nails tapping on his perfectly creased elbow and the table were also black, and the eyes that turned on the team as they entered the room were just as deep and sable.  
  
     Makino looked uncomfortable, chewing his lip and fidgeting with his tea, trying to drink it calmly and failing; Mr. Voice was on the monitor, but silently, watching the scene. When the Boukengers entered, he jumped up far too quickly and rushed over to Akashi.  
  
     “I… Uh… This is Shin.” The Professor said quietly. “I don’t know how he got here. I just came in and… Here he was. Said he wanted to talk to you guys.”  
  
     Shin tilted his head, his face neither young nor old, but a complex mixture of the two. He ran his tongue over his teeth, and Akashi would swear that they were pointed. After a moment of considering them, the man spoke. “… Good evening.” His voice was a warm, dark, velvety one that rumbled from somewhere deep in his chest and was strangely pleasant to listen to—relaxing.  
  
     “… Who are you?” Akashi asked.  
  
      Shin shifted in his seat. “Call me a… Person of unusual circumstance.” His foot thrummed against the ground briefly. “I require your assistance with something.”  
  
      Sakura edged up to stand beside the Chief. “Which would be what?”  
  
      The man stood, stretching limbs that looked too spindly to be quite human. “Something of mine was stolen. Something… Dangerous.” He sighed deeply. “Unless this… Item is recovered there will be… Catastrophic consequences.”  
  
      “Like what?” Masumi wanted to know, coming up to stand on Akashi’s other side. BoukenRed bit back a grin at how much more sensible he’d come to be while he and Sakura were gone—even if he was still Masumi.  
  
      Shin responded by simply staring at them until it became very clear he wasn’t planning on answering the question.  
  
     “We can’t be much help if we don’t know what we’re looking for.” Akashi finally said.  
  
     “… I don’t know.”  
  
     “What?” That was Masumi again, his old, incredulous, annoyed tones creeping in. “What do you mean you don’t know?”  
  
     The slight accusation didn’t seem to ruffle Shin at all—which was actually a little creepy. Masumi didn’t usually have trouble bothering people. “I mean that I don’t know what you’re looking for, either. This item… It looks different to all who behold it. I have no way of knowing what form it will assume.”  
  
     There was another stretch of silence as the team looked at one another.  
  
     “You said ‘catastrophic consequences,’” Souta finally said, “What do you mean by that?”  
  
     Shin shrugged. “I suppose… The extinction of the human race? Maybe setting in motion the end of the world, but I might not go that far. Powerful, but not that powerful. That’d be my parents’ spear.” No one was sure what to make of that offhand remark, but Shin kept going before they could say anything at all. “It would be something very bad, to say the least. In the wrong hands, this… Item is unpredictable. Only I can fully control it.”  
  
     “Then how did they steal it?” Eiji was already lounging against the wall, raising an eyebrow.  
  
      Shin’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t otherwise react to BoukenSilver’s snide tone. “They had help.” He said, shortly, then turned his attention back to Akashi. “I merely require the use of your… Technologies in locating the item. It’s recovery will fall entirely to me.”  
  
      Satoru laughed shortly. “Don’t be ridiculous. If it’s adventure, we’re in all the way—and you seem mysterious enough for it.” He thought he might have seen a smile cross Shin’s face, but the tall man said nothing else, merely bowing his head and walking out.  
  
     Once he was gone, Makino-sensei took Akashi’s arm. “… I don’t know if this is a good idea, Chief Akashi. He got past the security far too easily, and he’s not sharing the whole story. He could be untrustworthy.”  
  
     “Yeah,” Snarked Masumi, “Because that’d be something new.”  
  
     Mr. Voice glared angrily at him, but didn’t answer the thinly veiled accusation. “The fact is, Chief Akashi, we haven’t been able to find any history or information on him—he bypassed the DNA scanners, and didn’t give us a surname. We have no way of confirming his identity.”  
  
     Akashi smiled, snapping his fingers at the screen. “That, Mr. Voice, is what makes it an adventure.”  
  
      “There’s a thin line between adventure and insanity, BoukenRed.” Snapped their boss.  
  
     Makino-sensei made soothing motions with his hands. “Now, now, both of you.” With a sigh, he turned back to Akashi. “I’ll look into it as best I can with what we have. In the meantime…” He leaned over and picked up a file sitting beside his teacup. “He, uh… Shin, left this.”  
  
     Souta stepped forward, taking the folder and flipping it open. Inside was a pile of papers, some with photos clipped to them; a woman with thick makeup, long nails, and hair clipped to fall over her face, a smile that would have looked more at home on a shark; a thick-set man with a beard and a nice suit, cigar stains on his hands, frown-lines on his high forehead; another, scrawny figure, photographed on a rainy day, dirty clothes and watery blur making it hard to identify a sex; the final one was another woman, this one clean and crisp and beautiful, pictured from across a ballroom in a fine gown, looking more like a fashion model than a subject of a candid shot.  
  
     “I’ll get on the identities,” BoukenBlue promised, then passed Akashi the top sheet, “Looks like that’s where he wants us to start.”

* * *

 

     The ruins Shin’s papers directed them to were easy to miss—they might not have found them at all. The dilapidated walls were covered in moss and vines, and the colours and carvings were worn and faded. The layout reminded Akashi of a pentagram, circular with pointed edges within.  
  
     The moment they stepped inside the outer wall, Eiji pulled out the Sagaspear, activating the Sagasu Mode, and started wandering about, running it over everything he could. Sakura immediately began scanning the area, and Masumi and Natsuki joined Akashi in looking around carefully.  
  
     “Hm?” Both of the boys turned when Natsuki made a noise, approaching one of the last tall walls, pushing plants out of the way to look at the images on it. Akashi and Masumi came over to see what she was looking at.  
  
     The figure was only vaguely clear because of the dark colours that had gone into it—if it could even be called a figure. It was closer to amorphous, a towering form of blackness, semi-gifted with a humanoid form. The shape was lording over fainter, smaller figures, these more clearly human. Above them, the being was extending what might have been arms, arched and encircling, and a pair of strangely designed eyes stared out from the main mass.  
  
     At that moment, Eiji joined them. Frowning at the mural for a second, BoukenSilver reached up with his detector and moved the vines at the very top out of the way, too, revealing even more.  
  
     There was another form above the dark one—this one etched angrily into the stone in grotesque and muddy colours. There was so much weather damage, and the image had been messy to begin with, so there was no way to tell what the thing was supposed to be. Still, there were two more arm-like parts reaching down from it, the ends sharpened and curled like talons, the tips just barely touching the edge of the dark being.  
  
     By that time, all of them had gathered before the wall.  
  
     “It’s like it’s… Protecting them.” Sakura mused, reaching up to run a finger along the wall just below the shadow being. “Shielding them from… Whatever that is.”  
  
     “Protecting, or… Something else?” Masumi wondered. “It’s impossible to tell which is the threat, or if both of them are…”  
  
     Sakura shook her head and began analysing the image, taking photos. Masumi moved away, further into the ruins, and Eiji followed him. Natsuki and Akashi began checking about for other murals.  
  
     “Hey!” This time, it was Masumi. “Look at this!”  
  
      All of them but Sakura came over to find him crouched on the ground, before a large streak of scorched plant-life near the centre of the ruin.  
  
      “A fire?” Eiji asked.  
  
      Natsuki, however, knelt down next to Masumi and looked closely at the remains, then shook her head. “No. Natsuki doesn’t think so. It looks like… Like the life was sucked out of it.”  
  
      “What?” Satoru crouched down, too, taking out his acellular to scan the blackened area. “… She’s right. It’s not burned, just… Very, very dead.” Something on the screen made him frown. According to the scan, the decimation didn’t end at the ruin; the acellular was picking up dead undergrowth up ahead, too. Rising, he skirted around the darkened ground to follow the signature, and discovered the traces of death leading away from the debris and deeper into the forest around them.  
  
     Eiji followed him, kneeling down himself to poke at the marks, more of them now, though smaller, striping the forest floor, with his Saguspear. The dead plants crushed silently to dust at the slightest movement—even the small movement of air from BoukenSilver’s crouch set them falling apart. “… Looks like someone was dragging something…” He remarked, rising carefully so as not to destroy any more evidence. “Might be we found the trace of that ‘item’ Shin wanted.”  
  
     “Or, it could be something else entirely.” Sakura had finally come to join them, the other two close behind.

     Akashi chuckled. “That’s the fun part, Pink.” He reminded her, then snapped his fingers. “Attack!”  
  
     He chose to ignore something that looked very much like Masumi rolling his eyes.

* * *

     “Well.” Eiji concluded. “Something happened here.”  
  
     Something certainly had. The traces of dead plants had lead them to a clearing—or, what was left of one. The trees surrounding it were all withered and fossilised—large, swooping arcs of dead undergrowth covered the ground. Birds were silent, and no animal stirred in what was left of the bushes around them; blackened twigs and leafless skeletons.  
  
     “Yes.” Sakura agreed. “But what exactly? What sort of Precious could do this?”  
  
     “Or that.” Masumi asked, pointing.  
  
     On the other side of the clearing, there was a piece of ground missing, as if something had perfectly scooped it out completely—leaving half of trees and rocks behind.  
  
     “Teleporter?” Eiji offered.  
  
     “Or something,” Masumi agreed, walking over to inspect the missing land, “It didn’t damage it, just… Removed it. Unlike that.” He nodded over at the deadened ground.  
  
     Sakura tried scanning the area again. “Looks like… Whatever took the ground away left some sort of trace.”  
  
     “A trace?” Satoru came over to look over her shoulder.  
  
     “It’s like… A trail of energy… Particles? Or, something.” With a few taps to the screen, she pulled it out to a map, a dotted line drawing across it. “It leads to…” She trailed off, frowning. “… The middle of the ocean?”  
  
     The other two boys looked at her in shock. “What?” They chorused.  
  
     Natsuki, however, clambered down into the missing dome, despite Masumi making a grab for her arm, picked up a rock, and licked it thoughtfully. Then, she turned back to everyone else’s incredulous stares. “It’s salty.”  
  
     “Eh?” Masumi asked, then threw up his hands when Eiji proceeded to follow her lead with another nearby pebble. “Why are you both licking rocks?”  
  
     “She’s right.” BoukenSilver announced, nodding, then reaching over to help Yellow out of the hole.  
  
     Akashi frowned, looking between the ground and the map in Sakura’s hand. Yes, there was white crusting the earth, now that he looked closely, including the halves of rocks, like the ones Eiji and Natsuki had picked up. “… Seawater.” He said, finally.  
  
     “Seawater?” Natsuki asked, tilting her head.  
  
     Akashi nodded. “It didn’t just take out the land, it traded it. Because the trail lead to somewhere in the ocean, the ground here was switched with the same amount of saltwater.”  
  
     Masumi was nodding now. “Which then evaporated in the sun and heat, leaving behind traces of salt on the dirt and rocks.”  
  
     Eiji punched him in the arm. “Don’t pretend to understand all of a sudden.” Masumi glared at him. The call tone cut off any further argument as they all pulled out their acellulars.  
  
     “What is it, Blue?” Akashi asked.  
  
     On the screen, Souta looked rather proud of himself. “I’ve found two of our mystery people. Fortunately and unfortunately, turns out that the big guy and the goth chick both have criminal records.” The pictures of the bearded man and the heavily made-up woman appeared in the corner of the screen. “The man is Asai Iwao; famous occult enthusiast with a great deal of money and very little regard for the law. He’s known for sneaking, stealing, and even slaughtering people when they don’t give him what he wants, including arranging for him to ‘inherit’ it or something. Really nasty fellow, but no one has been able to bust him because he has such a big cash web set up, even though SRS suspects his ill-gotten collection contains several dangerous Precious.”  
  
     “And the woman?”  
  
     “Kurokawa Ryoko. She’s… Something else. Something… Scary.”  
  
     “Scary?” Natsuki quipped curiously.  
  
     Souta’s mouth twisted grimly. “She’s apparently a suspect in several murders and has been described by authorities who have met her as ‘dangerous and violent with a flair for the dramatic.’ She was incarcerated once, and the other inmates were so terrified of her that they wouldn’t even be in the same cell block; she was released due to inconclusive evidence. As for random trivia; her nickname is ‘Lady Death,’ she’s believed to act as a freelance torturer, and is legally blind in her right eye.” BoukenBlue leaned back in his chair with a loud sigh. “I briefly asked one of the federal agents I talked to about the possibility of Kurokawa and Asai working together, and he turned a… Very interesting colour.”  
  
     Akashi and Sakura exchanged looks. “looks like Shin wasn’t exaggerating that much when he used the word ‘catastrophic’…” She murmured, then looked back at the deadened nature. “If these are the effects of the Precious, and people like that have it…”  
  
     Satoru nodded. “Well done, Blue. We’ll bring back what we found here for further study and form a plan from there.” He looked up at the others. “Collect anything we can.” They nodded, and split up to do the job. “Blue,” He continued, addressing Souta again, “See what you can get about Kurokawa and Asai’s current movements.” BoukenBlue nodded and signed off. “… Pink?”  
  
     She was still at his elbow. “Chief?”  
  
     “Check in with Makino-sensei about the investigation into Shin, and give him any help you can. I want to know just how dangerous this Precious really is.”  
  
     Pink saluted and headed back towards the GoGo Vehicles while Akashi went to join the others.  
  
     In the shadows of the trees, someone—something—watched hungrily.

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: I am a **big baby**. Make of that what you will.


End file.
